Shoe-sewing machine



(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 1.

W. COMEY.

SHOE SEWING MAGHINE.

No. 389,059. Patented Sept. 4, 11388.

Invent/or,

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W. OOMEY.

SHOE SEWING MACHINE.

No. 389,059. Patented Sept. 4, 1888.

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UNITED STATES \VILLARD COMEY, OF VVESTBOROUGH,

PATENT OFFICE.

ASSIGNOR TO THE IMPROVED SOLE SHOE-SEWING MACHINE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 389,059, dated September 4, 1888.

Application filed July 17, 188?.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLARD CoMEY, of VVest-borough, in the county of \Vorecster and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Boot and Shoe Sewing Machines, of which the following is a specification.

The objects of my invention are to provide means for the automatic regulation of the upstroke of the needle-bar according to the thickness of the stock, and to more securely hold the welt near the line of stitches.

In the accompanying drawings, which illustrate so much of a sewing-machine as is required to show all my improvements as embodied in the best way now known to me- Figure 1 is a side elevation, partly in section. Fig. 2 is an end elevation. Fig. 3 is a side view of the needle-actuating mechanism. Figs. 4, 5, and 6 are enlarged views of the disks, with the wedge-key for connecting them. Fig. 7 is a View of the side of the welt-guide opposite that shown in Fig. 1, and Fig. 8 is a bottom view of the welt-guide. Fig. 9 is a side view of the welt and its guide as the welt is passing through the machine. Fig. 10 is a section on line 00 a: of Figs. 1 and 2. Fig. 11 is a cross-section of a welted shoe after the welt is sewed on and before it is flattened out.

The upstroke of the needle is automatically regulated to carry its point the distance required above the material being sewed, however the thickness thereof may vary, by the devices now to be described.

The presser-foot A rests on top of the material which is supported by the horn I, and therefore will be nearer to or farther from the horn I, according to the thickness of the material. These varying positions of the presserfoot are availed of to regulate the extent of the upstroke of the needle.

To the presscr-foot bar A a lever, a, is con nected, as shown in Fig. 2, or in any suitable way, and receives motion therefrom. The outer end of the lever a is arranged to act on a wedgeshaped key, B, which fits in grooves cut in two disks, 0 O, the disk 0 being connected to and controlling the motion of the needle-bar c, and the disk 0 being fast to the rock-shaft c, which operates both disks and the needle,

Serial No. (16,949. (No model.)

as hereinafter described. Then the presserfoot is up to its highest point, the outer end of the lever a, attached to it, is at its lowest point, and does not touch the wedge-key B, which, being pressed down by the spring b, fills the grooves in the disks 0 C and makes them practically one solid disk, so that all the motion communicated to one will be imparted to the other, and, as the motion of the disk 0 is imparted to the needle, it will rise to its highest point of stroke. Now, if the material be reduced in thickness, the presser-foot bar A will fall correspondingly, and the outer end of the lever a will be raised, and, striking the wedge key B, will force it up between the 6 disks, so that it will not entirely fill the grooves therein. Consequently the disk 0 will partly rotate before it imparts motion to the disk 0, which therefore will move less than the disk 0 and cause the needle to rise a shorter dis- 7o tance than before.

It will be readily understood how by decreasing the thickness of material the lower the presser-foot will fall, the higher the outer end of the lever a will be raised and the more it will force up the wedge-key B, so that the thinner the material the less the motion imparted tothe disk 0 and the less the upstroke of the needle. The point to which the needle descends in its downstroke is always the same, because the actuating mechanism at this time causes the grooves in the disks to coincide and brings the screw-bolts b b to the ends of the slots in the disk 0, as shown in Fig. 5, and at the same time carries the wedge-key B away from the end of the lever a, thereby allowing the spring I) to force it in place to lock the disks together. It will be seen that it is only on the upstroke of the needle (in which alone the point reached by the needle has to be varied) that the keyB is brought in line of motion of the lever a, and acted on, as above described.

The screw-bolts b b are at the ends of the slots in the disk 0 when the grooves in the 5 two disks coincide, and thereby cause a positive motion to the disk 0 on the downstroke, even if the key B be not in place.

I control the bar d, that carries the guideroll D, by a spring, (1, attached to the frame ILO and bearing against the bar d. The bar (1 is drawn back by the lever d and link d", which, being nearly in a straight line when the bar d is pulled back, resists the tendency of the spring to throw it against the shoe or the tip of the horn l.

The sewing on of wclts automatically has been a matter of great practical difficulty, as the welt is required to be of stout leather and is usually nearly an inch in width. To bind such a strip edgewise around such short curves as the toe ofa shoe is very difficult, because it greatly elongates the outer edge and shortens the inner edge of the welt, the strain being so great that the welt is very apt to get out of place, and will in all cases crowd against the guides used. After many experiments with various kinds of guides it occurred to me that the difficulty would be overcome by binding the welt near the niiddleand sewing it on in the form of a trough. In order to give this shape to the welt it is passed through the curved slot 0 of the welt-guide E. This weltguide may be attached in a variety of ways to the machine, as will be obvious, but works to the best advantage when attached to the sleeve F, the sleeve F being fast to the presserfoot bar A. It will be seen that the spring 6 tends to thrust the shank of the welt-guide E out of the sleeve F as far as it will go, so that the guide E is always in contact with the work; but when the bar which carries sleeve F is pressed down, the pressure of guide E is greater than when sleeve F and its bar are raised, and,as the feed takes place when sleeve F and its bar are raised, the pressure of spring 6 on guide E must be so adjusted as not to interfere with the feed. The ridge e presses the bottom of the troughshaped welt down near the line of the stitch.

In addition to the regular presser-foot A and the use of the welt-guide E as a presser foot in a qualified sense, I find it desirable but not essential to use a third foot. This third foot, H, is thrown down (with the needle) by the spring 9, moves with and aids the needle in feeding the work, and is raised off of the work as the needle rises out of it and makes its returnstroke with the needle over the surface of the work, ready to descend again with the needle. It may be properly called an auxiliary feed, as its main function is to aid the needle in feeding the work; but it also acts as a presser-foot during a portion of the upstroke of the needle.

The operation is as follows: The shoe is supported in the usual way upon the machine, the guide D keeping it in place on the horn I. The

welt-strip is inserted in the slot 6' of the weltguide and thereby bent into the desired trough shape. Just before the needle descends the welt is forced against that part of the upper lying over the inner sole by the presser-foot A and also by the spring e, which has been conr pressed by the descent of sleeve F. The needle now descends and with it the foot H, the needle piercing the stock and the foot H moving as far down as the stock allows. The needle then takes the loop from the looper in the usual way and rises, so that its point clears the surface of the horn I, when the needle and foot H both move sidewise to feed the stock. Of course presser-foot A and sleeve F are lifted just before the stock is fed and thrown down down as soon as the feeding is done. The lower end of wedge-key B is brought over the end of the lever a at the end of the feed, and will be struck by lever a, as before explained, unless the stock be of the maximum thickness. The needle is then raised out of the stock, the extent of its upward stroke depending, as be fore explained, upon the amount of motion given to key B by lever a, and as the needle nears the end of its upstroke the foot His also raised clear of the stock. The needle and foot H then make their back-stroke ready for the next stitch.

The mechanism for actuating the various parts is the same as in the well-known waxedthread sewing-machine, called the National, and will be well understood by all skilled in this art without description. Reference may also be had to my Letters Patent No. 250,647, dated December 13,1881, my present machine being an improved form ofthe machine therein shown.

No claim is made in this application to certain novel features shown or partly shown herein, they forming the subject matter of another application for Letters Patent, Serial No. 138,570.

What I claim as my invention is In a sewing-machine, the combination of a needle-bar, a presser-bar, grooved disks C 0, means, substantially as described, for operating disk 0, wedgekey B, and intermediate mechanism,substantially as described, for controlling the position of said wedge-key and thus regulating the upstroke of the needle-bar according to the thickness of the stock, as set forth.

VILLARD GOMEY.

\Vitnesses:

G. B. MAYNADIER, J. R. SNOW. 

